


An Afternoon in Stellar Cartography

by allamaraine



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-26 08:03:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2644307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allamaraine/pseuds/allamaraine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ostensibly about charting a course for Voyager, but really it's about Stadi and her friendships with some of her crewmates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Afternoon in Stellar Cartography

Lieutenant Stadi's brow furrowed in frustration when Ensigns Delaney showed her the stellar map they had constructed, with the help of Neelix. Astronomically speaking, there was nothing particularly exciting about this section of the Delta Quadrant, no reported anomalies to interfere with sensors or navigation. According to Neelix, however, this region was fraught with tension. Several of the regional powers were at war with one another, while most of the neutral parties were highly suspicious and isolationist, unlikely to offer any aid to Voyager. Add to this periodic raids from the Kazon and the limited natural resources, Voyager was going to have a tough time getting through here. Stadi was the one who had to plot a course through this mess.

"What are these glowing green markers for?" she asked.

"Those indicate planets or stations that Neelix said might be willing to help us." Jenny Delaney answered.

"Might?" This was not encouraging. There were only a handful of the green markers scattered across the map. Stadi wasn't sure it would be worth zigzagging to these inconveniently located spots unless they were guaranteed to be able to restock on their supplies. She would need to talk to Neelix herself before she presented Janeway with a flight plan.

Megan Delaney pressed a couple of buttons and the stellar map rotated in its dome, exposing a much more empty area of space, light years from any territorial claims. "Our safest option would be to go through this section here. Initial long range scans show that there are only a few star systems, most likely consisting of Class J or N planets, so we would have to really stock up on supplies, but at least we wouldn't have security patrols constantly on our tail."

Stadi shook her head. "Too far out of the way. The Captain doesn't want to add any more time to our journey than we can help."

The sisters exchanged a glance, and though Stadi always did her best to block out her crewmates' thoughts, she couldn't help but hear the twins' shared disagreement with the Captain. They would much rather take their chances among the gas giants.

"Besides," she added, "Even the people who live here don't have reliable charts for that area. We'd be going in blind, for the most part."

Excitement. Of course... they both relished the idea of being the first cartographers to map an unknown region of space. They'd never admit it to anyone else, but for the Delaneys, getting flung into the Delta Quadrant was thrilling, on a professional level at least. Stadi smiled. "Don't worry, ladies, I am sure you'll get plenty of other chances to make your mark. For now, we need to focus on getting through this in one piece."

"No fair!" exclaimed Jenny.

"You read our minds!" said Megan.

"It's not my fault that your thoughts are so strong. Good thing you two aren't Betazoids, or I would be in real trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"On Betazed, twins are extremely rare - and extremely powerful. From birth, they are more in tune with one another's thoughts than any other two people could ever hope to be, so when they work in unison, their psychic capabilities far surpass the rest of ours. In ancient times, many Betazoid cultures even worshipped twins as gods."

Jenny waggled her eyebrows. "That sounds about right. Megan, if we ever get back to the Alpha Quadrant, let's move to Betazed."

"Hmm, eternal worship and praise, people attending to our every whim,” mused Megan, "I could get used to that."

Stadi laughed. "As long as I get to be your high priestess."

Jenny immediately conjured a mental picture of Stadi in a long white tunic and gold snake headdress, reminiscent of the pharaohs of Earth's ancient Egypt.

"Not quite." Stadi grinned mischievously. "Betazoid priests and priestesses were generally completely naked except for jewelry. Though, sometimes they would be painted or tattooed."

"Oh!" Jenny exclaimed, blushing at the image that now entered her head. Stadi laughed. She loved how easily embarrassed Humans were, even open and forthright ones like the Delaney sisters.

The doors to the stellar cartography lab slid open. All three women turned to see Crewman Celes walk in, bearing a PADD for the Delaneys. “I have those long range scans you wanted.” She bit her lower lip nervously when Megan took the PADD from her, but when she caught Stadi’s eye she relaxed a little. Stadi, who often woke with other people’s dreams invading her sleep, had discovered Celes in the mess hall late one night, desperately trying to make sense of the stream of sensor data on her PADD. She’d been reluctant at first to talk to Stadi, not wanting to admit her failure to a superior officer. That night, Stadi didn’t push. Over the next few weeks, however, she’d developed a rapport with the Bajoran, offering not only professional help, but friendship as well. Their first few months in the Delta Quadrant, Celes had felt isolated from the rest of the crew, both Starfleet and Maquis. Stadi, being Stadi, couldn’t ignore someone in need of a friend.

Megan examined the PADD carefully, looking for the usual mistakes. To her surprise, there weren’t any. “Everything looks great. Thank you, Celes, this should be very helpful!” she said.

“You’re welcome, Ensign.” Celes straightened her shoulders with pride.

“Now, could you enter it into that computer? That should give us a better idea of what these systems over here are like.”

“Yes, sir.” Celes took the PADD back from Megan, sat down at the indicated computer, and synced the two devices together. Stadi crossed the room to join her as she worked, dragging the data to their appropriate fields.

Stadi nudged Celes with her hip and said, “See? I told you you could do it.”

Celes looked up at Stadi and grinned. “All thanks to you!” Stadi caught the unspoken thought, _If only you’d been one of the teachers at Tech._ Worthless, the whole lot of them, to let Celes slip through the cracks like that, just so they could boast more Bajoran graduates.

“Hey, what are friends for?” Stadi said. Celes practically glowed with the warmth of being referred to as a friend. Stadi smiled and leaned against the console. “Speaking of that, I’ve noticed you’ve been hanging around Crewman Telfer a lot.”

Celes spun her chair to the right to face Stadi. “It’s not what you think!” she protested.

“I know that,” Stadi tapped her temple with her forefinger, “Psychic, remember?”

Celes smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I just get defensive because my roommate insists there must be something going on between me and Billy, no matter what I tell her.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not after romantic intrigue. We need two more people for our volleyball team for the tournament.”

The Delaneys, overhearing this, immediately joined Stadi in surrounding Celes chair. They, too, were on Stadi’s team, along with Ensign Golwat, and they were fiercely determined to crush Tom and Harry’s team. Jenny clapped her hands together in a pleading manner, “Oh yes, Celes, please say you’ll do it!”

Celes frowned, “Is volleyball the one with the rackets?”

Jenny and Megan’s faces fell a little and Stadi laughed. “No, that’s tennis.” She turned to a spare computer terminal and asked it to bring up a video from the most recent Earth Olympics. “This is volleyball.”

“Oh, yes, I remember people playing something like that on the quad at Tech.” Celes watched the video for a moment or two. “I don’t know, I don’t think I’d be very good at it.”

“Nonsense, we’ll teach you everything you need to know. Right, girls?”

“Right!” said the twins in unison.

“We were the best players at the Academy!” said Jenny.

Megan winked. “And the best looking.”

“Only because I'd already graduated,” said Stadi. “So, what do you say?”

All three women leaned forward expectantly, Jenny bouncing on her toes. Celes flushed bright red. “I’ll have to talk to Billy, but… I can try?”

Megan clapped Celes on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit! Practice starts tomorrow. I’ll message you the time, once I talk to Golwat.” Then she and Jenny launched into a strategic planning discussion of exactly how they were going to destroy Tom and Harry and speculating on what Tom might look like crying. As amusing of a conversation as it was, Stadi couldn’t allow it to continue.

“Alright, Ensigns, back to work. We’ve got more important things to discuss than the humiliation of Mr. Paris. Captain Janeway needs a report from me in less than an hour.”

Celes turned back to her computer and the twins instantly snapped back into professional mode. “Yes, Sir.”

“Once Celes is finished incorporating her scans into the map, we’ll have a better idea of what’s in that uninhabited area I mentioned earlier,” said Megan. “There are actually quite a few L-Class planets and one or two M-Class that we didn't catch before.”

“Then I'd say it’s worth taking a look at that option. I still think Janeway is going to want to take a more direct route, but I’ll present her with your plan as well. Can we get Neelix in here again? I’d like to ask him a couple of things.”

Jenny called Neelix over her comm. badge. As usual, he cheerfully agreed to come right away. Meanwhile, Celes finished updating the map and all four women gathered around their miniature domed copy of the Delta Quadrant.

Jenny sighed. “I wish we had something bigger than this.”

Celes asked, “Like one of those giant astrometrics labs on the Galaxy-class ships, with the 180 degree viewscreens?”

Jenny nodded, “Exactly! This is a research vessel, for Pete’s sake! You’d think they would have given us a better stellar cartography department!”

“Careful,” Stadi warned, “This sounds an awful lot like you're slandering my poor ship.”

“ _Your_ ship?” asked Megan. “How does the Captain feel about that?”

“Or Lieutenant Torres?” said Jenny.

“Shhh. They don’t have to know.” She moved towards one of the walls and patted it affectionately. “Me and Voyager, we’ve got an understanding, don’t we baby?” It was only partially a joke. Pilots almost always felt a strong connection to their ships, but Voyager was special. The bio-neural circuitry had had an unexpected, though not unpleasant, effect on Stadi. She would have had trouble describing it to non-telepaths, but it was almost like the ship was gently, unobtrusively singing to her all the time. From the moment she first stepped on board, she knew this is where she had to be. 

Right then, Neelix walked in. He chuckled at the sight of Stadi stroking the wall and said, “Am I interrupting something Lieutenant?”

“Not at all. Just letting my number one girl know how I feel about her.” She rejoined the group at the map and waved Neelix over. “If you don’t mind, I have some questions for you, about the outposts you mentioned?”

The five of them set to work, eventually picking out three route possibilities to present to the captain. The sisters’ suggestion was the safest, but longest and with the least opportunity for resupplying the ship. Neelix’s was the best for supplies but involved a lot of backtracking and convolutions. Stadi’s was the fastest, but put the ship right in the path of the warring factions. Celes quietly took notes and wrote everything up, much to Stadi’s relief when the time came to report to the captain. No doubt the same arguments they had in stellar cartography would come back up in the senior staff meeting this evening, but Stadi was confident that whatever course they chose, she would be able to successfully pilot the ship through. Her crewmates depended on her and she wouldn’t let them down.


End file.
